Dwyane Wade's 41 leads Miami Heat past Wizards

MIAMI — For a quarter, the Miami Heat looked like they were still hanging their heads about a disappointing loss the previous night.

Then guard Dwyane Wade perked things up a bit.

Wade scored 20 of his team-high 41 points in the second quarter to spark the Heat in their 121-113 victory against the Washington Wizards on Friday at AmericanAirlines Arena. Although it won't lessen the blow of Thursday's loss at Chicago, it gave the Heat some much-needed momentum entering Sunday's game against the new-look New York Knicks.

"I think there was a little bit of a hangover at the beginning of the game," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "Then we showed a lot more energy, at least on one side of the floor. We'll have to get better at that. Defensively, we played in spurts."

Before the game, the Heat talked about the frustrations about their performance against the Bulls. In the early going, it appeared that would affect them the following night. They looked sluggish in the first quarter, shooting 38 percent.

LeBron James and Wade were uninvolved in the offensive flow, with guard Mario Chalmers leading the team with nine points. The Heat trailed 25-20, but order was restored when the second quarter began. The moment belonged to Wade, who started his personal run with a reverse layup.

He went on to score 18 of the Heat's next 19 points. The only Heat player to score during the run was Eddie House, who made a free throw after the Wizards were whistled for a technical foul. The most impressive score during the stretch came with 11:20 left in the first half.

Wade stole a pass, dribbled the length of the court and finished with a one-handed slam after being fouled by Wizards guard Nick Young. Wade ended the spurt with a fade-away jumper that put the Heat ahead 39-33 with 8:03 left. Wade made 18 of 27 shots, tying his career-high for field goals in a game.

"I got a couple shots to fall," Wade said. " I started off missing some chippies. Then I got a couple to fall for me. As a scorer once you see the ball through the basket, now you're going."

The Heat led by as many as 10 in the first half, but failed to put away the short-handed Wizards. They were playing without injured forwards Andray Blatche and Al Thornton while also adjusting to the addition of newly acquired guard Mike Bibby.

"It's always a concern coming in because you don't know who's going to play," Spoelstra said. "They were on top of their game right from the beginning."

Still, the Wizards were able to remain close behind the play of Young.

For three quarters, he was just as effective as Wade. Young finished with a team-high 38 points. He and Wade often guarded each other, trash-talking between the two of them after some of the baskets. With Young keeping them in distance, forward Rashard Lewis hit a 3-pointer with 7:20 remaining in the third quarter to tie the score at 73.

With Chris Bosh enduring a second consecutive poor shooting game, the Heat simply turned to Wade again. Despite strong votes of confidence from teammates, Bosh was mostly ineffective from the field until late.

"All that's going through your mind is, 'Man, I just really need to make a jumper," said Bosh, who was 1 of 18 against Chicago.

James' 25 points and Wade were more than enough to offset Bosh's struggles. Wade closed things out with Wade then had another short outburst with eight points and an assist during a key run. He hit a jumpshot that gave the Heat a 98-90 lead.

On the next possession, Bosh scored on a 3-point play to push the lead into double-digits.